Positional Game · GAME-PASS-L6
Standing vs Seated — At a Disadvantage
The top rung of the passing ladder. The seated player starts with a shin-to-shin, single-leg-X, or two-on-one already established; the passer has only a sound standing posture and must pass against a guard that is already attacking.
Start position
POS-STD-VS-ENTANGLED
Round length
3:00 rounds
Reset rule
Reset when the top player confirms the pin, or the bottom player sweeps or wrestles up to top. Role rotates after each reset.
Top wins by
Pass to a pin — chest-to-chest or chest-to-back control held for three continuous seconds without being re-guarded.
Bottom wins by
Complete a sweep to top position, or wrestle up to top.
Game Description
The hardest rung. The seated player already owns a real threat — a shin-to-shin, a single-leg-X, or a two-on-one — and the passer starts with nothing but a sound standing posture. This is the position a passer fears: behind from the first second, against a guard that is already attacking the legs and the base.
How to Run This Game
Setup: Bottom player seated with a shin-to-shin guard, single-leg-X, or a two-on-one already established. Top player standing with otherwise sound posture, no grips.
Top wins by passing all the way to a pin (three-second chest-to-chest or chest-to-back) despite the disadvantage. The work is to deny the entry that takes you down on the guard’s terms — protect the inside space and your own knee and hip line — then clear and flatten.
Bottom wins by completing a sweep to top, or wrestling up to top — converting the head start into priority.
Score: One point per win condition. Role rotates each reset.
Coaching Notes
Top players who win here are rarely doing anything new — they are applying the same flatten-bypass-protect principles from the rungs below against a worse starting hand. That is the proof the ladder works: the skill transfers down the difficulty gradient. Elevated tier: this rung is built on live entanglements — only run it with practitioners whose tap-release reliability is established.
Progressions
This is the top of the standing-vs-seated passing ladder. Its inverse is the guard-retention ladder, run finish-first from the guard player’s side, starting at finishing the reversal from shin-to-shin. For the full picture, browse the games library.